It's not a stretch to say that without Lynch's footwork,
Northern Illinois wouldn't have busted into the Bowl Championship
Series and gotten a spot in the Orange Bowl against Florida State.
Lynch can throw the ball - 24 touchdowns against only five
interceptions this season - but he seems better when he takes off
running.

The native of Chicago's south side entered the Orange Bowl with
1,771 yards rushing, the most by any quarterback in any college
season.

He also carried a streak of 11 straight 100-yard rushing games
into the matchup with the Seminoles, another NCAA record for
quarterbacks.

Ask him about people raving over his toughness, and he'll
happily start talking.

''Living in Chicago and growing up, I think you're sort of
blue-collar, always got a chip on your shoulder, always do things
the right way and respect the game,'' Lynch said. ''Always tough.
The neighborhood was a bunch of guys like me, just liked to get
after it, blue-collar guys, always playing football in the street,
tackling instead of two-hand touch, stuff like that.''

So in other words, a perfect primer for the offense he's
operating now.

Northern Illinois thrives on going no-huddle, up-tempo, with
Lynch operating the read option. When he throws it, he's typically
accurate - of all the quarterbacks in the nation with more than 350
attempts so far this season, only three had fewer
interceptions.

When he takes off, the former running back tends to forget he's
a quarterback.

''I think the best part is he delivers the blow most of the
time,'' offensive lineman Jared Volk, Lynch's roommate. ''He's not
a quarterback that's going to slide. He's going to go into you
head-first and he's going to make you regret trying to tackle him.
So I think that's the best part about Jordan. He gets a lot of
respect from the offensive line for the way he runs.''

But wouldn't it be a little easier if Lynch tried to avoid
contact every now and then?

''I know Jordan,'' Volk said. ''He's never going to slide.''

Lynch doesn't see reason to change his ways, certainly not
now.

He also can't help but wonder if his rugged style might be his
ticket to the next level as well. In this era of young, dual-threat
quarterbacks in the NFL, Lynch said it gives a 6-foot-1,
220-pounder like himself hope of getting there.

''I think the quarterback level is definitely changing in the
NFL,'' Lynch said. ''I mean, there's only a select few Peyton
Mannings.''

Even after all the accolades that Lynch has received this
season, he's hardly the first Northern Illinois quarterback to be
widely celebrated.

While it's certainly possible that many college football fans
didn't know much about the Huskies until they got invited to the
Orange Bowl, the program is steeped in both the game's history -
and its innovation. It was somewhere around the early 1960s that
Northern Illinois was credited with bringing what was then called
the ''shotgun spread'' offense into the game, and in 1963 Bork
threw for a then-college-record 3,077 yards.

The 3,000-yard mark was history-making for Bork.

And in the second quarter of the Orange Bowl, it was for Lynch
as well.

He entered the Orange Bowl needing only 38 yards passing to
become the first player in Football Bowl Subdivision history to
pass for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,500 more in the same season.
And it took him 14 attempts against the Seminoles to do it, but his
third completion of the Orange Bowl gave him 40 passing yards for
the night and 3,002 for the season.

''How does he practice?'' Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher
asked. ''I mean, he does so much in the game, I don't know how he's
got the energy to practice all week. The guy runs the ball for 130
yards a game and throws it for 250 or whatever. It's amazing what
he does and the pounding and the beating ... I mean, he's not an
extremely big guy. He's well built, but he's not a huge guy, and to
do the things he does he's a great competitor.''

And the Seminoles are quick to point out that Lynch isn't
Northern Illinois' only competitor.

''They've won all but one game, and there's other weapons
besides Jordan Lynch that we're going to have to be prepared for,''
said D.J. Eliot, Florida State's defensive coordinator for the bowl
game before he departs for Kentucky. ''They've got good speed, and
their offensive line is very effective. They work well together. So
you know, we're conscious of more than just one player.''

Still, for Lynch, it's funny how things can change so
quickly.

Lynch wasn't even the starting quarterback at Northern Illinois
until this season. Coming out of high school - where he ran the
triple-option - he had exactly one scholarship offer for
college.

And then came this breakout season, where he was seventh in the
Heisman Trophy voting and gets to finish on the BCS stage.

''I thought he would have a good season,'' Volk said. ''But I
didn't think he was going to have a season like this.''

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